1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to novel chunk style peanut butters and processes for obtaining such peanut butters.
2. The Prior Art
Peanut butter is normally available in two forms, a creamy style and a creamy base with pieces of chunk nuts (peanut granules) mixed therethrough; this latter product is commonly referred to as chunk style or crunchy type peanut butter.
While the creamy type is the more popular of the two types, the chunk style also enjoys a high degree of acceptance as evidenced by the fact that the chunk type peanut butter constitutes about 30% of the total U.S. peanut butter market.
Heretofore, the known chunk style peanut butters have presented certain problems and limitations, the most notable being the limited amount of chunk particles or granules that may be present in the total product. In addition, these products have a tendency to be less spreadable than the creamy style, and yet are more likely to show objectionable oiling off, free oil droplets in areas in juxtaposition to the peanut granules. Furthermore the flavor profiles of the chunk style products differ from the seasoned creamy style peanut butters employed as the major ingredient in their manufacture. The result is that the particular flavor profile which manufactures strive to consistently maintain in a given brand of creamy style peanut butter is not maintained in a chunk style product of the same brand.
The conventional process for making peanut butter comprises the steps of roasting shelled peanuts, cooling and blanching the roast peanuts, removing the germs, sorting to remove the objectionable peanuts for discard, finely grinding the roast peanuts that passed inspection, mixing in optional, but preferred, sugar and salt flavorings, and then regrinding. In making the preferred stabilized peanut butters now on the market, a hydrogenated component described below is introduced prior to the last grinding operation. From about 90 to 95% of the product is ground roast peanuts. The protein content of these conventional peanut butters can be from about 26 to 30% and the oil content from about 48 to 52%.
Because finely ground roast peanuts exhibit gravitational instability (oil layer separating on top of the product) it has become regular practice to add a relatively high melting fat component to the hot peanut butter (about 170.degree.F) some time prior to the filling of the product into jars. These high melting fat components have a melting point in excess of 110.degree.F, but less than 160.degree.F, and can be: a partially hydrogenated fat, a completely hydrogenated fat, mono-(and di) glyceride esters of the saturated fatty acids, or mixtures of these firming up agents. These high melting fat components, sometimes called hard fats, when added in small amounts (viz. 1-5% of the peanut butter), may be introduced as a supplement to the ground roast peanuts or when added in larger amounts (viz. 5-10% of the peanut butter) may be introduced after an equivalent amount of the liquid peanut oil in the ground roast peanuts has been removed. The added hard fat sets up as continuous or semi-continuous stearine structure within the final peanut butter during the cooling of the product and in so doing prevents oil from separating from the peanut butter.
In the preparation of conventional chunk style peanut butter, it is regular practice to superimpose sliced or granulated chunk nuts onto the regular creamy peanut butter prior to the packaging process. In order to incorporate the solid chunk nuts into the creamy peanut butter phase, the two phases, i.e., creamy and chunk, must be mixed or agitated in order to properly distribute the chunk nuts throughout the total mass. The agitation or mixing which is necessary to obtain an even distribution of chunk nuts in the creamy phase can produce an end-product which has a tendency to exhibit oil separation because of marked disruption of the continuous stearine structures. Higher levels of chunk nuts accentuate the problem. If not mixed adequately, the end-product is non-uniform with regard to distribution of the chunk nuts and variable in spreadability.
In conventional chunk style peanut butters, which are available in the U.S. market, there are on the average about 10% chunk nuts, by weight, in the total product. The following Table I summarizes an analyses of commercially available chunk style peanut butter products purchased in retail supermarkets during 1972:
TABLE I __________________________________________________________________________ ANALYSES OF CHUNK STYLE PEANUT BUTTER FOR PERCENT OF CHUNK NUTS AVERAGE COMMERCIAL NUMBER OF CHUNK CONTENT RANGE OF PRODUCT SAMPLES TESTED (% BY WEIGHT) CHUNK NUTS (%) __________________________________________________________________________ TA 1 3.4 -- S-C 1 3.5 -- T-T 1 5.9 -- KR 1 6.1 -- R-V 1 6.8 -- S-V 1 7.6 -- NU 3 7.7 5.9 - 9.2 L-L 5 7.9 3.0 - 10.7 ST 1 8.7 -- A-P 3 8.7 5.1 - 11.9 R-G 1 8.9 -- JI 26 9.1 6.5 - 12.2 F-C 1 10.6 -- SK 25 12.1 10.1 - 13.5 H-T 1 12.2 -- SU 1 13.6 -- PL 1 13.9 -- BA 1 14.0 -- P-P 20 14.2 12.7 - 14.6 __________________________________________________________________________
Many consumers who enjoy chunk style peanut butters would enjoy a product with significantly more chunk nuts than previously manfactured if the qualities associated with the peanut butter products now being manufactured could be maintained or improved upon.
More particularly, a desirable chunk style peanut butter would be one or more of the following:
1. A chunk style peanut butter containing a higher level of chunk nuts than is now available; PA1 2. A chunk style peanut butter with good organoleptic properties; PA1 3. A novel chunk style peanut butter with good spreadability; PA1 4. A chunk style peanut butter with good resistance to oil separation at elevated temperatures; PA1 5. A chunk style peanut butter which can substantially match the flavor profile of a creamy style peanut butter containing seasonings, for example, salt and sugars. PA1 a. finely ground roast peanut paste, said paste having a total oil content of from 52 to 56%, by weight, of the creamy phase PA1 b. an amount hard fat, the amount of hard fat being such that the oil has a Solids Content Index of PA1 c. from 0 to 1.7%, by weight, of the creamy phase, salt, and PA1 d. from 0 to 4%, by weight, of the creamy phase, added sugar. PA1 3.0 to 5.5 at 50.degree.F PA1 1.5 to 3.0 at 80.degree.F PA1 0.5 to 1.5 at 102.degree.F.